Holy bat fire! This is real

Ventilator in old post office sparks blaze on movie set

April 25, 2007|By Alexa Aguilar, Tribune staff reporter

Bystanders gathered in the Loop to watch smoke billow from the 14th floor window of "Gotham National Bank" couldn't decide -- was the blaze real or had it been set by the Joker for a scene in the upcoming Batman sequel?

It was real -- and Hollywood had nothing to do with it. Firefighters called Tuesday to the old Main Post Office, where production crews are filming "The Dark Knight," blamed an ancient ventilator unit that caught fire on the top floor.

This isn't the first time the ventilator has caught fire in the vacant building at 433 W. Van Buren St., said 1st District Fire Chief Jose Santiago.

This time, though, Gotham City detectives were on hand, waiting for their scene involving a fleet of school buses near the fictional city's bank. The set, which included the lettering "Gotham National Bank" on the post office's facade, featured a fake wall with a replica school bus smashed between glass doors.

As Chicago firetrucks and ambulances arrived on scene, costumed detectives leaned against their Gotham City police cars, watching the action.

Steve Burrell, of Fox Lake, said he was watching the filming from the 16th floor of a nearby building when he saw "a giant, quick burst of flame and then smoke."

"They were set to film their scene, the filming people were in position, but then everything was aborted," Burrell said.

Pete Kearney, who works in an office building next to the old post office, told the Associated Press that he noticed smoke outside his 11th-floor window and went outside to check it out.

He said crews had been filming there all week, so "we assumed it was part of the movie."

Santiago said that security with the film crew noticed the smoke and called the Fire Department around 11:20 a.m. Sprinklers in the building had already activated and firefighters were able to contain the fire to the ventilator unit.

The building is empty, except for the first floor, where the movie crews are set up this week.

No one was injured, Santiago said.

The crews for "The Dark Knight" are in Chicago this week, then will head to London. They will likely return to Chicago by June, said Rich Moskal of the Chicago Film Office. "The Dark Knight," starring Christian Bale and Michael Caine, is the follow-up to "Batman Begins."

"This is one of the biggest, if not the biggest, production shot in the city," Moskal said.